Reflections......

“Everybody knows, this is nowhere”
N. Young

It reminds him of when he turns on his cell phone in some new and different city, and it quickly determines you are in a new time zone, reflecting it accurately after thinking about it only a few seconds. Not so much the technology, but our ability to adapt to the changes that interest him.

Similarly, when you wake up in a new place before the dawn and for a long moment cannot register where you are. What if our brains no longer functioned so mechanically, quickly recounting the plans put in place, and the execution of the plan which brought you here. What if we had to relearn about ourselves each time we awoke?

Well yes, that would be creepy. The movie Ground Hog Day comes to mind. However, there may be some value in the concept. Travel allows some of that wouldn’t you agree? If you are alone and interacting with other unknowns, you can choose to cheery pick the parts of your life you wish to share, even over-emphasizing the things about yourself that your day to day mates fail to recognize or appreciate. You can reset the view of yourself more in line with your “zone”, and not the one that is necessarily reflected back by those that have always “known” you.

It may be, and it may actually be a more useful practice leading to a better understanding of self, to not “act out” the different, more favorable perhaps, parts of your psyche, and instead just pay attention to what those who know nothing of your list of life roles, fears, joys, skills, or conferences attended, reflect back to you. Simply pay attention to how you feel when you are “recognized by others right now, at this moment in time, in your zone.

And who is that in your mirror? Do you find that the reactions of others who have just met you fit better into that image you see reflected back? Oh, the benefits and limitations of a world surrounded by those who have seen us grow up. And in contrast, the fresh and intoxicating sensation when someone recognizes the “you”, that you see.

Travel, physical and intellectual movement off our stump, openness and conscious avoidance of judgment toward others, will offer the opportunity for this to occur. Or, as Carole King so clearly wrote, “you’re as beautiful, as you feel.”